Bay to Beirut: It's about the money after all

Any chance Jason Bay ends up back with the Red Sox as opposed to in Queens?

I think he’d rather be playing in Beirut than Queens. The sad part of this is that sometimes there’s so much competition between agents that the players become pawns. I think in Jason’s case, it would have been really easy to take 4 x 15 [million dollars] in July, which I thought, actually, at the time was a little bit high as an offer. It was clear that the Red Sox just wanted to get him signed and get him out of the way. While the Mets offer is four [years] for 65 [million], it’s so backloaded that I’ve been told by Mets people that it’s far less than what the Red Sox were offering in present-day value. And he obviously doesn’t want to play there. And they’re scared of having him play left field there for four years. it’s really a shame it’s worked out this way. I don’t see any way they’re going to add anybody else here. They’re not going to go above the luxury tax. They’re going to hold some money back to acquire a contract in July for whatever they need. it’s too bad. I know he wanted to go the free-agent route. But at the same time, he really found a home here. it’s really too bad.